Alternative Grading Methods

Alternative Grading Methods are assessment approaches that prioritize learning, mastery, and student growth over traditional systems.

Resources

• Grading for Growth is a substack by David Clark and Robert Talbot, who wrote the book of the same name. Faculty can subscribe for regular newsletters and browse or search the archive.
• The Center for Grading Reform hosts the Grading Conference, an annual virtual event for faculty to present on and learn about alternative grading strategies.
• This toolkit has readings and sample materials for using ungrading with project-based learning. 

Related Presentations

Grading and Ungrading: A Panel Discussion on Alternative Grading Methods
Faculty on this panel have implemented a variety of grading strategies, including specifications grading and ungrading in their teaching. The impetus for these approaches has been in response to the pandemic and to their developing pedagogical philosophies about grades to motivate authentic student learning.
To View the discussion, Click here.

Books in the CTL Library

• Grading for Equity shows us how we can use grading to help students become the leaders of their own learning and lift the veil on how to succeed.
• Hidden Curriculum is a revealing look at the experiences of first-generation students on elite campuses and the hidden curriculum they must master in order to succeed College has long been viewed as an opportunity for advancement and mobility for talented students regardless of background.
• Labor-Based Grading Contracts argues for the use of labor-based grading contracts along with compassionate practices to determine course grades as a way to do social justice work with students.
• Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes shows that the decline in our workplaces and classrooms may be related to our acceptance of a theory of motivation derived from lab animals. Drawing on a wealth of psychological research, he points the way to a more successful strategy based on working with people instead of doing things to them.
• Specifications Grading puts forward an innovative but practical and tested approach to grading that can demonstrably raise academic standards, motivate students, tie their achievement of learning outcomes to their course grades, save faculty time and stress, and provide the reliable gauge of student learning that the public and employers are looking for.
• Wad-Ja-Get is a unique discussion of grading and its effects on students. The book was written by three education professors who have had first-hand contact with the problems of grading in all its forms.